Musings of a sixty-something Catholic laywoman who has made The Promise to participate as a Pauline Cooperator in Fr. James Alberione's vision of evangelization through the new means of social communication.

Friday, January 06, 2012

Today's story doesn't come from the sidewalk,
but from last night's screening of Fr. Robert Barron's CATHOLICISM
series at Holy Family. We watched episode #5, Peter and Paul. Fr. Barron
spoke of how Christ's gospel was confrontational when he preached it
two thousand years ago. Saints Peter and Paul recognized that what they
were preaching would offend the ears of many in the world of the Roman
empire. They expected to be martyred for their witness to the gospel. It
is still confrontational today, Father Barron insists, unless we water
it down to make a
kind of easy-going gospel that moves along comfortably in the
stream of "the world".

In the faith-sharing session afterwards, a
friend and fellow parishioner spoke of how she often wondered if she
would have the courage to stand up for the gospel in a culture and
situation where witnessing could be dangerous.

"Could I," she wondered, "Stand up to the Nazis if I had lived
during the time of all that killing and injustice? I like to think that I
would have, but I wonder."

Have you ever wondered that about yourself?

I challenge you, if you have never taken a public stand against the
killing of the unborn, to ask yourself why you have not. Thousands of
innocent lives are taken every week in Planned Parenthoods and other
abortion clinics across the country. We who live in the culture spawned
by the injustice of Roe v Wade occupy a position similar to that of the
German people who lived in the culture of the Third Reich. We know that
abortionists legally kill unborn children by the thousands, the
millions, every year. We know that the killings are justified under
benign names like "reproductive rights" or "a woman's choice". We know
that our nation's heart and soul are being coarsened -- and its
conscience deadened -- by decades of our complacence in turning our
heads at the deep wounds inflicted on women, families, surviving
siblings, abortionists and their staff, and all who participate in this
injustice.

Is that complacence a form of complicity? Can silence indicate agreement?

What
kinds of weeds might be being sowed to serve as obstacles to hearing
the Lord's call to stand against this contemporary Slaughter of the
Innocents? Do we worry that people will think we are one of those
"pro-life nut jobs" if we come out to pray one day at Planned
Parenthood? Do we think we will offend our more sophisticated friends if
we stand with and pray for the unborn as they live out the final hour
of their short life? Do we secretly agree with our pro-choice friends,
and think that some of these cases are so pitiful that death is the best
solution for an unplanned pregnancy?

Let's ask ourselves this, and pray about it. I took two weeks "vacation" from sidewalk
ministry during the Christmas season. I did not want to face the
contradictions of the joy of the season and the sorrow of the lives
being taken-- and the sorrow of the Rachels mourning for their children,
even when they themselves were cause of that mourning. I had to pray
long and hard to prepare myself to come back to the sidewalk.
It is not easy duty, but it is powerfully revelatory of the Lord's real
and immediate presence in our hurting world. Every time we go, the Lord
provides evidence of His presence and love. Every time.

This week, on both Friday and Saturday, public and prayerful witness
will take place for the sake of the unborn lives that are at risk and
being killed in Wilmington's Planned Parenthood, 625 Shipley St.

Friday's vigil, with 40 Days for Life under Delaware Right to Life, will take place from 8:30-11:30 am.

Saturday's vigil, with the Knights of Columbus, will take place from 7:30-10:30 am.
I hope to see some new faces this year. Why not let 2012 be the year you step out onto the sidewalk
to pray and vigil for the unborn? The more the Delaware community sees
that ordinary folks are praying, not protesting, the more likely they
are to realize that for as long as the injustice perpetrated by Roe v
Wade continues, praying at abortion clinics is a normal Christian
ministry and witness to the gospel.

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About Me

Welcome! A Pauline Cooperator is a layperson who follows Blessed James Alberione. The Paulines are all about media, traveling the world via airwaves & electrons telling stories of Christ to our wild, wounded world. A world that longs to find the Way, know the Truth & be given the Life.
I am wife & beloved to Bill Stabosz. We fell in love at 16, married at 19, & have gone 43+ years through hell & high water, low water, no water, clear water & back to sweet Eden garden of earthly delights. I am mother to nine fabulous offspring, six of whom married and brought cool mates into the family. I adore my 15 grandkids (two more on the way!). I have good friends, few enemies, & way cool siblings. I used to work a day job at the University of Delaware but I retired in June of 2007. Like Don McClean, the three Persons I admire the most are the Father, the Son & the Holy Ghost. They are maligned & misunderstood. I love them. The Trinity has never let me down. Ever. Or anyone else who trusts the Three-in-One. Anyone. You